Cardiac output is conventionally used to gauge heart function of a patient. Cardiac output corresponds to an amount of blood pumped out by the heart over time (e.g., a minute), and may be calculated from a heart rate and stroke volume of a patient. Conventionally, ultrasound imaging systems are used as a non-invasive method to evaluate and/or measure blood flow in the heart, typically using Doppler techniques, such as pulsed wave (PW) Doppler.
However, these Doppler techniques are manually intensive and requires the user to have a high technical expertise. For example, the user acquires an ultrasound image of the heart, such as a five chamber view, and will continually position and reposition a PW cursor corresponding to a PW gate until an acceptable flow spectrum is acquired at the PW gate positioned by the user. When an acceptable flow spectrum is acquired, the user will proceed to take measurements from the flow spectrum to calculate the cardiac output. For example, the user will select a velocity time integral (VTI) measurement from a diagnostic list and manually trace the flow spectrum to calculate the VTI. The accuracy and speed of the measurements relies on the expertise of the user, which may limit critical care needs of patients in emergency situations in determining treatments plans.
For these and other reasons, an improved method and system for measuring cardiac output is needed.